Entirely fictional workplace studies in how ordinary problems become strategic programmes. *Not actually observed anywhere in particular.
FIELD NOTE 01
The Meeting Reduction Taskforce
Leadership became concerned that employees were spending too much time in meetings.
A cross-functional taskforce was established to understand the root cause. It met twice a week, created four workstreams and introduced a monthly governance forum to monitor meeting reduction.
After eight weeks, the programme had produced a 38-slide deck, a meeting taxonomy and a new mandatory meeting about responsible meeting ownership.
The company reduced meetings by cancelling the meeting-reduction taskforce.
FIELD NOTE 02
The Green Status Report
A programme was six weeks late, two key decisions were unresolved and the launch date had already passed.
The programme manager explained that calling it red could create an unhelpful perception of failure, while amber might imply there was still time to intervene.
The steering group therefore agreed that green most accurately reflected the team's continued confidence in the strategic intent.
The project remained green until three days after it was cancelled.
FIELD NOTE 03
The Initiative Simplification Initiative
The executive team discovered there were too many strategic initiatives.
They launched a new initiative to rationalise the initiatives. A portfolio office was formed, a prioritisation framework commissioned and every initiative owner was asked to submit a business case explaining why their initiative should survive.
Six months later there were 14 fewer initiatives and 17 new workstreams supporting the simplification programme.
The only initiative nobody was allowed to challenge was the initiative simplification initiative.